Boehner: No minimum wage hike

2/13/13 11:06 AM EST

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Wednesday he is opposed to raising the minimum wage right now.

President Barack Obama discussed the minimum wage at his State of the Union Tuesday night, urging Congress to hike it to $9 an hour and “tie the minimum wage to the cost of living, so that it finally becomes a wage you can live on.”

“Listen, when people are asking the question ‘Where are the jobs?’ why would we want to make it harder for small employers to hire people? I’ve got 11 brothers and sisters on every rung of the economic ladder. I know about this issue as much as anybody in this town,” the speaker told reporters on Wednesday morning.

Instead, Boehner said, the focus should be on policies to get people to enter the workforce.

“What happens when you take the rungs away on the economic ladder, you make it harder for people to get on the ladder,” Boehner said. “Our goal is to get people on the ladder and help them climb that ladder so they can live the American dream.”